Of Kunai and Bolters
by SoggyBlueToast
Summary: When Sandaime Hokage finds himself in need of a warrior from outside of Konoha, he asks for aid from a mysterious faction that has been trading in secret with Konoha since the days of the Shodaime. Little does he realize the true power of this mysterious "Inquisition"
1. Prologue

Konoha

Hiruzen, God of Shinobi, was frustrated.

The cause of that frustration was as per usual related to the topic of Naruto. The boy had managed to steal the forbidden scroll, learn one of the jutsu within, and then promptly used this new ability to apprehend the traitorous chunnin Mizuki. The final act in this farfetched story came when Iruka used the opportunity to 'pass' the boy in the field, thereby inducting the boy into the Shinobi ranks before he was rushed to the hospital.

The turn of events however wasn't the true cause of his frustration. The true cause of his current frustration lay in the three individuals who had promptly rushed into his office not five minutes after these events had come to light.

"For the last time Danzo, Naruto will not be given into your care; the boy is a Shinobi now, with all the rights that come with it." Hiruzen tried to keep his voice as placid and calm as possible, "You I would like to add are a civilian and have no right to 'tutor' an active shinobi."

Danzo looked unimpressed, "We had a deal Hiruzen, I leave the boy alone and let him have some semblance of a 'normal childhood", they both snorted at that knowing now the amazing failure that that attempt had been, "and in return you hand over the jinchuriki to me when he joins the Shinobi forces."

Hiruzen forcibly kept himself placid, "I said no such thing Danzo and we both know it, nor should I have had to, unless you are going to inform me that ROOT has not been shut down and is active enough that they would have been able to 'collect' the boy? Without my permission I might add?"

Danzo practically growled in an uncommon show of emotion for the old warhawk, "We had no need to say it, just as I don't need to say a thousand other things. I will not stomach you reneging on this bargain! Place the boy in my custody and Konoha will have a weapon worthy of it!"

Sarutobi's patience finally snapped "Enough! I am Hokage in Konoha, my word is law, you will drop this matter and it shall not be raised again."

He sat back down and returned to his paperwork, refusing to even look at his counsel. A clear dismissal to Danzo and his advisors that they quickly heeded by vacating the room with simmering irritation clear in their step.

Danzo couldn't help but make a parting shot "This isn't over Hiruzen, the boy will be the weapon Konoha needs, with your permission or without", before shutting the door behind him with a low thud.

Sarutobi sighed as he wondered when it was 'allowed' for a man to directly oppose the Hokage in anything. In Kiri or Iwa Danzo would have been dead in moments for daring to even think of standing against him, political influence or not. This wasn't Kiri or Iwa though and as such Danzo could say pretty much whatever he wanted as a 'civilian' and Sarutobi couldn't do a thing unless he had undeniable proof of treasonous that even Danzo's supporters within Konoha couldn't refute.

It pained him but Danzo still had a long way to go before his actions represented enough of an issue to warrant his removal and suffer the political fallout of the act.

* * *

Hiruzen sighed as he leaned back in a chair.

It had become abundantly clear Naruto needed a bodyguard. It had been three weeks since the argument with Danzo in the Hokage office, and in that time there had been four attempts from 'unknown hostiles' to kidnap the boy within Konoha. Fortunately Kakashi had fought off all threats without Naruto or Team 7 noticing any danger, in each case the attackers had backed off when Kakashi intervened, leaving him unable to pursue without leaving Team 7 undefended.

Kakashi however was beginning to fray under the pressure of watching and defending the boy at all hours without support. Normally Hiruzen would have assigned other forces to defend the boy in shifts, but the Leaf simply didn't have the capital at the minute to pay for a 24/7 bodyguard mission with no immediate gains, especially when the assigned guardians would need at least ANBU level talents based on what Kakashi had observed of the attackers skill thus far. He also didn't know he could trust with the assignment, as even those within his ANBU could be ROOT double agents.

Which brought him to his current conundrum in that he needed an extremely talented guardian who had no animosity toward the Nine Tails Jinchuriki or relations to Danzo (Which ruled out almost all Konoha ninja except Kakashi), who would also require payment in something other than conventional capital that the leaf didn't have (Which ruled out hiring a Suna ninja or even a missing- nin). Finally the guardian would need to be neutral to the conflict within the elemental nations and un-bribable.

A frankly impossible set of requirements, and yet…

Hiruzen could think of a single group that fulfilled all the above requirements and it filled him with dread to even think of further getting involved with them beyond Konoha's current obligations.

He didn't even know if said group would speak to him, as the entire process of their dealings were decided upon by the Shodaime late in his reign and hadn't been adjusted since, not even in two generation. The whole process of their annual interaction involved no communication between the two groups or even sighting of them beyond their strange blocky 'sky ships'.

The only thing Hiruzen really knew about the group from beyond their desire for Shinobi prisoners, reclusive nature and bizarre jutsu, was the name they gave the Shodaime upon their first meeting with Konoha.

The group called themselves 'The Inquisition'.


	2. Chapter 1

**Inquisitorial Corvette** _ **"Shadowed Intent"**_

Khylus didn't even grace the sweating naval provosts with a glance outside of a cursory glance to establish threat level.

Negligible.

As a member of the Deathwatch there were few things a _human_ could do to escape such a classification; an unfortunate but undeniable fact. Humans were frail. He did not blame the provosts their fear, a member of the Astarte in full power armor was supposed to inspire fear, in ally and foe alike.

The provost to his right nervously gestured for him to enter the inquisitor's quarters. Khylus did so without comment, ducking his head on reflex as he passed under the aquila that held vigil over the hatch. Its hollow eyes seemed to follow his movement, judging him; Khylus always felt he came up wanting. The feeling was not unusual, he could never remember feeling otherwise. He took the imagined rebuke in stride, but was still glad to be past it and into the Inquisitor's quarters.

The inquisitor himself did not cut and imposing form, Octian wore a simple drab and unassuming robe, stained with ink, the kind that would not look out of place on a chapter serf. His head had few remaining tufts of hair just jutting out in patches on his head in thin grey tufts. He had an auto-quill in one hand, and clutched unconsciously the symbol of his office in the other. The simple wireframe glasses that he wore rode low on his nose as he glanced over them, almost glaring, at the endless documents that almost seemed to breed on his desk each time Khylus saw the man. The glare from the normally softly spoken man was a clear sign that he was wearying of the constant bureaucracy he was no doubt subjected to.

If one were to judge the man based on initial impressions he would seem to be little more than a administratum clerk that could be found in their thousands on any imperial world.

In Khylus's experience few foes lived long enough to change that initial impression. The 'doddery old man' persona was as much a weapon for the inquisitor as any of the other myriad conventional tools as it his disposal.

Glomine was also present, standing off to the side tinkering with something or other, her oily red cloak hiding the menagerie of bionics and servos hiding within. The techpriest could almost pass off as a normal human wrapped up so; the only thing that threw off that assumption was the incessant whirring and clicking that came from beneath the woman's cloak. He knew that underneath the hood was more metal than flesh, only identifiable as still human by association with the Mechanicum. Khylus wondered not for the first time what thought process made the woman hide her augments from sight when so many of her contemporaries in the Adeptus Mechanicus flaunted their changes as signs of devotion to their machine god; and even then Khylus pondered what brought the peculiar woman into the inquisitor's service.

As a member of the Adeptus Astartes Khylus would never voice any of these thoughts, they occurred in the far back reaches of his mind that weren't calculating firing trajectories and other combat theoretical he automatically did whenever entering a room. He was Adeptus Astartes, flesh made weapon, idle thought was the domain of man. He would do as instructed and benefit the survival of man. Anything else was superfluous and not worth acting upon.

The inquisitor and techpriest looked up at him as he walked into the room and came to stand before deferentially Octian's desk. A feeling of subtle curiosity seemed to emanate from Glomine as evidenced by her looking up from her tinkering and the slight increase in whirring sounds from within her cloak. She was no doubt curious as to what would have brought the normally reclusive Deathwatch Black Shield out of his quarters and what it had to with her. Octian merely studied him over the rim of his glasses, his slightly dopey facial expression contrasting with the steely confidence in his grey eyes. Khylus returned their as best he could from within his featureless black helm. No one spoke to him as he came to stand rigidly at attention.

Octian waited a moment before setting down his quill and without preamble motioned to a pict screen on the wall to his left. The pair had evidently been summoned to be briefed on something. If Glomine found it odd she would evidently be working with the rarely seen Space Marine she gave no indication. Khylus obviously said and felt nothing on the subject.

It was a planet, below that was a satellite image of a large town within a large forest, that at a guess would be late feudal but not yet industrial as there were not the large smoke clouds that typically defined such a developmental stage. Octian gestured at the town.

"Konoha" he said in a clear voice that demanded attention, "One of four opposed 'hidden villages' on the continent known by the natives as 'The Elemental Nations'. The hidden villages belong to the four major powers of the continent, but are in reality the predominant power on the planet"

Khylus shifted ever-so-slightly, as he felt the urge to ask the next question, "Xeno?"

"No," Octian answered, "Human, we assume that they are a colony that is at least pre-crusade in age, but in truth the exact age is a subject of great debate amongst those seers I have put to the task."

Before Glomine could speak Octian continued by answering the obvious question "We have found no evidence of an STC of any kind on the planet. Although technological development is skewed enough to suggest technological regression, it is far from advanced enough to imply any intervention beyond conventional imperial technology."

"With all due respect inquisitor, why are we here then?" Glomine interjected, drawing a subtle nod from Khylus, "As I understand it we are incredibly far from Imperial space, or known space at all for that matter, the discovery and subjugation of new worlds is the domain of Explorator fleets or even the Imperial Guard, and even then there are a hundred civilizations to exterminate or bring into the Emperor's domain between here and the Imperium. What is it about this backwater requires the attention of the inquisition?"

"A good question Glomine," Octian smiled like a Pyjack with a Granary between its claws.

"The reason we are here, discreetly I might add as we have no way of truly securing this world so far from our domain, is this." Octian gestured theatrically to the pict as it changed to show a bloody man in chained to a table. The black haired man who couldn't be more than twenty Terran cycles had obviously been there for some time if the dried blood on the table could be believed, with fresher bleeding incisions scattered across the man's body. He looked to be in a lot of pain. He also apparently had his eyes removed, based on the gaping sockets. Khylus didn't as much as blink.

"Subject 28, produce flames" A synthetic voice, likely belonging to a Magos Biologis came from the pict. The man shuddered and immediately responded in slightly accented low gothic, "I keep telling you I don't have a fire affinity, I can't use fire jutsu. The other Uchiha have fire, but I have wind! You fucking monsters, I can't make fire!"

The man immediately went completely rigid with what Khylus recognized as being electrocuted with a low current before falling limp again. The synthetic voice repeated the request "Subject 28, produce flames"

The man responded by whispering something inaudible before some kind of phenomena appeared in the air around his right hand. The visible distortion seemed to shimmer before shooting off screen, and if the splatter sound and sudden screech of binary were to be believed, it had caused significant damage to at least one of the mechanicum interrogators.

The pict changed to show another eyeless black haired man spewing fire from his mouth. The next showed a dark skinned man still in possession of both eyes, with his hands crackling with electricity. The next showed a man apparently sinking 'into' the metal table and disappearing from sight before an alarm went off and the intercom blared warnings of a containment breach. The last one showed a man levitating a ball of water. The pict shut off and Glomine and Khylus returned their attention to the inquisitor sitting smugly at his desk.

Khylus was happy to wait for the inquisitor to elaborate, not particularly bothered by the abilities shown in the video, having encountered far stranger events in his time in service to the Emperor, but evidently Glomine didn't have the patience and interjected in an unexpected show of emotion from the normally taciturn tech magos.

"So we have a race that seems to be comprised of an inordinately large number of psykers far outside our sphere of influence? Why haven't we informed the black ships or bombed them into-!" Glomine silenced herself as Octian calmly raised a hand. The Inquisitor placed both hands on his desk as he spoke in a slow deliberate manner

"They aren't psykers"

Glomine shrugged, "Mutants then, chemical glands in the throat, or electricity generating organs like the xenos on Perseus-8-"

Octian's grin just widened as he responded in a low drawl, "The traits seems to be engineered, not naturally occurring." Octian, gave both of them a significant glance as if to emphasize the similarity,

Octian continued after a moment, "However that is utterly irrelevant compared to one trait the 'Shinobi' have, or rather the energy source they use has a trait, which is of great value to us. The natives refer to this ability to create phenomena as 'jutsu' which is powered by 'chakra'. From what we understand, their bodies contain a replenish-able but finite amount of chakra at any given moment. Attempts to use more than the body has results in the death of the subject"

Octian said the next words almost entirely to Khylus "Indeed, a great many ended up being tortured to death in an attempt to stave off 'chakra exhaustion', however we would like to note the amount required to be used to kill one seems to vary from person to person."

Khylus made note of that, already constructing theoretical ways to deal with this new threat in his head. It would seem these Shinobi were vulnerable to battles of attrition.

"When we attempted to extract more information from the subject's minds using our sanctioned psykers, something interesting happened."

Octian tapped the table in a small rhythm, another sign of his contained excitement, "When the psykers entered the section of the ship containing the 'Shinobi' the whole lot of them died, within seconds of each other, to the last man. The whole group just collapsed bodily. "

It was at this point he stopped as if to emphasize the point to his audience "This 'chakra' that all of these 'Shinobi' have is able to completely nullify any warp energy within an area around it. We have in effect discovered an entire world of 'Blanks'"


End file.
